


one minute (and then we're ready to go)

by Nerdling_Queen



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: ALL THE ANGST, Angst and Feels, Angst and Tragedy, Blood of Olympus Spoilers, Gen, I'm so sorry, Leo Angst, My edition of Leo's death scene in BoO, Not A Fix-It, Not A Happy Ending, Please Don't Kill Me, So this is kinda canon, so if you somehow haven't read that don't read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 17:04:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4187868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdling_Queen/pseuds/Nerdling_Queen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo's death scene, my way.<br/>(He still dies.)<br/>Blood of Olympus SPOILERS, big-time!</p>
            </blockquote>





	one minute (and then we're ready to go)

**Author's Note:**

> Not in any way related to the bonds series.  
> Also, you may want tissues. Just sayin', if you cried at the canon edition, you'll probably cry here.

**.60**

They’re rising ever higher in the air, ever farther from her domain. Leo is ecstatic and terrified all at once, because if this works he will have saved the world, saved his friends- and if this works, he will be dead. And he’s still not sure if Festus will be able to give him the cure.

He glances down at the earth goddess dangling from his dragon's talons and bares his silver-ingot teeth in a grin. Even if he dies and doesn’t come back, he will have gone out a hero- someone people like. Someone people would want to know. Someone people would want to be friends with.

That’s all he’s ever wanted.

Gaea looks at him, face twisted in fear and helpless fury. Somehow she knows what he’s thinking, because she smirks- as much as she can with her face beginning to melt- and asks in a sickly sweet voice, _Is it worth it?_

“What?” His concentration on this conversation, on anything but his task, is fraying. Fire is trying to rip through his skin, trying to consume him entirely and make him part of it, and it’s taking all his will to hold it back.

She smirks again. _Sacrificing yourself for people who don’t even care about you. All you ever were to them was a tool- something to fix things when they could not do it on their own. They would have tossed you aside the instant you no longer mattered, Leo Valdez. You are only throwing yourself away for them; saving them the trouble._

He closes his eyes, fights down the sick feeling in his stomach. “I know.”

_What?_

Her voice is shocked and off-balance- obviously, she was expecting his famous denial.

“I know all that.” His voice is strong with only a slight undercurrent of despair. “I know that's all I am to them. That that’s all I ever was.

“But,” he continues, “that does not affect the way I feel about them.”

The son of Hephaestus opens his eyes and allows a smile to creep onto his face. “The only person who’s ever seen me as more than a tool was my mother, and you took her from me. I’m used to that. But-” and his voice cracks- “these people? They care about me too. At least, they care about me more than as just a- a toolbelt or a wrench they can whip out and use whenever they want and then forget about the rest of the time. They use me, they do. But they see me as a person, and that's more than  anyone else has ever done since my mom.”

He sees a giant fireball exploding toward them, a skinny blonde slimeball augur dangling from it, and Leo smiles wide. He looks at Gaea and shakes his head.

“Yeah, Dirt Face,” he says in reply to her original question. “Yeah, it is totally worth it.”

His flesh turns to white-hot flames as he meets the red-gold-copper fireball from below, and the world narrows down and dissolves into nothing but heat and light and death.

**0.**

 

**Author's Note:**

> I am sorry.


End file.
